The solution is to return to a design with a continuous two-way cycle path on the east side of the road along the route. This is the safest, most space efficient, and most attractive option for most people who cycle now and those who will cycle when conditions are improved.

Here’s fives ways you can help:

1. Respond to the public consultation

Fill in this short web form to outline in your own words why the council should provide a fully-segregated two-way cycle route. Alternatively you can email traffic@dublincity.ie.

2. Tell your local councillors

Regardless of what area in Dublin you live or work, it is very important to tell your local councillors that this is an important issue for you and that the route should include a two-way cycle path design. Please text, email or call them — their details can be found on the city council’s website here.

4. Ask your employer

Use the template and advice on CyclingWorks.org to ask your employer to write to the council to support the route. The employer can be based anywhere in the city — the route is a core link between a good chunk of the northside and the city centre and beyond.

Some high-profile London-based employers supported that city’s segregated cycle route… isn’t it time that Dublin businesses and NGOs followed them and supported cycling for all ages and abilities?

Why a two-way cycle path?

Mixing cycling with buses and other motorists on a busy route — as is currently planned — does not fit with the idea of cycling for “all ages and abilities”: The route must be fully segregated.

The City Development Plan states: “With regard to the city centre, in particular, ease of access to persons of all ages and abilities is a significant indicator as to how inclusive Dublin is as a city,” and the National Cycle Policy states: “The bicycle will be the transport mode of choice for all ages” — we need to stop these from becoming hollow words.

(2) Arguments against it don’t make sense

The council and their consultants have outlined a number of “issues” as to why the two-way path should not be chosen — from safety of “cyclists taking chances” crossing away from official crossings to the idea that commuters won’t use the route. These, however, don’t make sense. Similar routes recently built in London prove that the “issues” can be fixed by good design.

The council’s arguments on safety are nonsensical — they rate having a two-way cycle path across the entrances to low-volume side streets as more dangerous than their plan of mixing cyclists with buses at bus stops and with trucks and heavy traffic turning from one major road to another.

(3) Connection to the S2S North

Even if other connections can be made between the Docklands and the coastal section S2S Dublin Bay route on the northside, the Clontarf to City Centre Cycle Route will be the most direct link between the coastal route and the city centre. It is of the utmost importance that a segregated route is provided to allow people to cycle from the costal section to the city centre and vice versa.

(4) Connection to the Liffey Cycle Route and southside

The council’s plan is to end the Clontarf to City Centre Cycle Route outside Connolly Station — this means people cycling to/from the southside and planned Liffey Cycle Route will have to brave the many lanes of traffic around the Customs House and Busáras. A fully segregated two-way path could easily be extended between Connolly Station and the quays, allowing for a safe and attractive connection.

Please sign and share

A two-way cycle path is the option which will get the best outcomes for safety, transport, health, climate change, and tourism — please sign and share.
Can two-way cycle paths work on urban streets?

The City Development Plan states: “With regard to the city centre, in particular, ease of access to persons of all ages and abilities is a significant indicator as to how inclusive Dublin is as a city,” and the National Cycle Policy states: “The bicycle will be the transport mode of choice for all ages”

To keep Dublin competitive and retain large employers like Google and Facebook, we MUST make Dublin a vibrant, liveable city and this means quieter, safer streets and choices in how we get around the city.’

“Cycling is a big part of the future of Dublin. By investing and prioritising cycling, Dublin has a chance to embrace a sustainable future. It is important that the city caters for all road users and protect in particular the most vulnerable.

To achieve this targets, the cycling and pedestrian infrastructure support users of any age or ability, safe from the threat of motorised traffic. As such, the cycling route connecting Clontarf to the City Centre cannot be anything but fully segregated and, ideally, two-ways.”

Could be useful to highlight this also: Clontarf to City Centre Cycle Route Public Information Session

An informal Public Information Session will be held at Charleville Mall Public Library on Saturday February 11th 2017 from 10:00am to 1:00pm. Members of the design team, RPS Consulting Engineers, will be available to answer queries from the public on the scheme.

With a fully segregated two-way cycle lane on one side, what does a cyclist do if they need to turn right? Do they have to wait for the next traffic light junction for a pedestrian light, do a U-turn and then turn left? Or can it be designed with frequent safe exit points that don’t increase collisions between cars and bikes?

In particular, I’m thinking of the studies on cycle path safety that are listed on Cyclecraft, like this: “In Helsinki, using a road-side cycle path is nearly 2.5 times likely to result in injury than cycling on the carriageway with traffic. At junctions the relative risk rises to more than 3 times. In those countries and cities which are just beginning to build cycling facilities, two-way cycle paths in particular should be avoided in an urban street network.”

The two-way path would be on the east side of the road, so, if turning right outbound there’s no interaction with the main carrageway. If you’re turning right inbound, it would generally have to be at traffic light junctions or mid-block pedestrian / cycle crossings.

In Ireland, we can’t have conflicting traffic light signals so, at large junctions, there will be no turning of traffic over the cycle path flow when cyclists have green lights (this may require a banning a turn or adding a filter lane in one or two locations).

The minor junctions are very low flow and I think nearly half of them are dead ends — the vast bulk of the motorists turning off these will quickly understand the nature of the cycle path and signage can make it clear for others.

Cyclecraft is a survival guide and great at that, but its author isn’t really fond of segregation. A two-way path would remove all of the conflict with buses and the turning traffic conflicts at the major junctions which are included in the city’s current plan — with that and the other reasons outlined above, I am very sure the Cyclecraft figure does not apply.

I really hope Dub City Council don’t cock this up. The whole route has such potential, as you outline above. A half-arsed route will be little better than no route because those who are nervous just won’t use it.

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